Drury graduate Bob Barker will return to his alma mater on Friday, September 26 for a ceremony and celebration to re-name a portion of Brower Street to Bob Barker Boulevard. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at the corner of Bob Barker Boulevard and Drury Lane.

On July 28, Springfield City Council voted to re-name the 400-800 blocks of Brower Street between Jefferson Avenue and Sherman Parkway to Bob Barker Boulevard in honor of the long-time “Price Is Right” host and 1947 Drury University graduate. Barker, who was born in Washington State, spent his youth in Springfield, Mo., where he attended Central High School.

Springfield resident Kitty Lipscomb first presented the idea of re-naming a street for Bob Barker. Lipscomb is a friend of Drury University; her husband, Jack Lipscomb attended Drury in the 1940s and his brother, Forest Lipscomb Jr., was a fraternity brother of Barker’s.

Barker has been back to his alma mater twice in the past two years. In May 2007, Barker was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Drury when he was the keynote speaker at commencement. In February, Barker donated $1 million to Drury to establish the Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights.

Patricia McEachern, Ph.D., the Director of the Drury University Forum on Animal Rights and a Professor of French, nominated Barker for his Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters and worked with him to establish Drury’s new course on Animal Ethics. The course is entirely funded by the Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights. The Drury University Forum on Animal Rights provides for speakers and a variety of other initiatives related to the study of animal rights.

Barker attended Drury College on a basketball scholarship and, despite having his college career interrupted by World War II, graduated from Drury in 1947 with a degree in economics. He began his broadcasting career at KTTS-FM in Springfield while attending Drury and in 1956 launched his long run on national television as the host of “Truth or Consequences,” which he once broadcast from Drury’s Weiser Gymnasium in 1972. That same year Barker began hosting “The Price Is Right,” and he continued on that program until his retirement in 2007.